Combatting Homelessness
Intractable but not impossibleOvercoming homelessness is too monumental a challenge for one organization. So The Pittsburgh Foundation is working on it with a team.
That is a partnership among Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh leaders, service providers, nonprofit organizations and foundations. The team is taking action to reduce the number of unhoused individuals by adding more affordable housing units in the region.
“A common misconception is that a solution to homelessness is more homeless shelters,” says Phil Koch, vice president of policy and community impact at The Pittsburgh Foundation. “But the issue of homelessness is really an issue of affordable housing.”
Koch draws a correlation between affordable housing stock and the levels of homelessness in communities. About 80% of individuals in shelters are situationally homeless, which means a specific event occurred – like a job loss or domestic violence – that triggered homelessness. Situational homelessness tends to last on average five days, but a lack of affordable housing units keeps people in shelters or on the streets longer. This bottleneck effect leads people more easily into chronic homelessness.
Housing is an area of grantmaking focus for The Pittsburgh Foundation. And as a community foundation, The Pittsburgh Foundation can reach into more strategies to impact critical issues, including through advocacy and by convening its donor community members to educate them on critical issues in the region.
Housing as a Continuum
Koch, the Foundation’s policy team and partners in the region arrived at affordable housing as a solution after researching the issue to find gaps in the housing continuum. Then, Koch hosted a meeting to educate donors and the community on potential solutions. These include Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato’s “500 in 500” initiative, announced in June, that would house people staying in shelters by making 500 affordable housing units available in 500 days. Following the meeting, donors invested in these types of coordinated, actionable solutions that will lead to systems change.
“The more people understand this complex issue, the more support we can garner for the partnership’s solutions,” says Koch. “Ultimately, our donor community can help people experiencing homelessness in our region afford housing and live better lives.”